“You should have deduced it yourself, Mr Potter,” Professor Quirrell said mildly. “You must learn to blur your vision until you can see the forest obscured by the trees. Anyone who heard the stories about you, and who did not know that you were the mysterious Boy-Who-Lived, could eas- ily deduce your ownership of an invisibility cloak. Step back from these events, blur away their details, and what do we observe? There was a great rivalry between students, and their competition ended in a perfect tie. That sort of thing only happens in stories, Mr Potter, and there is one person in this school who thinks in stories. There was a strange and com- plicated plot, which you should have realized was uncharacteristic of the young Slytherin you faced. But there is a person in this school who deals in plots that elaborate, and his name is not Zabini. And I did warn you that there was a quadruple agent; you knew that Zabini was at least a triple agent, and you should have guessed a high chance that it was he. No, I will not declare the battle invalid. All three of you failed the test, and lost to your common enemy.”
- HPMoR Chapter 35
I really, really like this idea. Squint. Blur away the details. What do you see?
Squint. Blur away the details. Forget about React. Forget about NextJS. Forget about front end web development, or even software development more generally.
Observe that there is one organization that offers a popular product that has been around for awhile. Observe that there is another organization that is trying, and succeeding, at becoming large and popular, and that depends on the first organizations product. Observe that the second organization is allocating lots and lots of resources towards helping the first organization.
How do you expect the first organization to respond? Well, I would expect them to feel sorta dependent on the second organization. I would expect them to cater somewhat heavily to the second organizations needs. And I would expect both organizations to try to hide the fact that this is happening.
I wish I had more good examples of how to use this skill of squinting. I’d love to see other people write more about it.
I’m listening to Eric Normand’s reading of Out of the Tar Pit. The paper Out of the Tar Pit kinda feels like it is saying, “complexity is the enemy in software projects, and here is the best way to tame it”.
When I squint, I don’t see software development. I see a a field of engineering. A very complicated one. One that has been around for maybe 50 years. And I see someone making a claim about the best way to succeed in the field.
Looking through this lens, I feel a large amount of skepticism.
Squinting
I really, really like this idea. Squint. Blur away the details. What do you see?
I just watched the video React’s becoming a bit weird. It made me think of squinting.
Squint. Blur away the details. Forget about React. Forget about NextJS. Forget about front end web development, or even software development more generally.
Observe that there is one organization that offers a popular product that has been around for awhile. Observe that there is another organization that is trying, and succeeding, at becoming large and popular, and that depends on the first organizations product. Observe that the second organization is allocating lots and lots of resources towards helping the first organization.
How do you expect the first organization to respond? Well, I would expect them to feel sorta dependent on the second organization. I would expect them to cater somewhat heavily to the second organizations needs. And I would expect both organizations to try to hide the fact that this is happening.
I wish I had more good examples of how to use this skill of squinting. I’d love to see other people write more about it.
Maybe this is an example.
I’m listening to Eric Normand’s reading of Out of the Tar Pit. The paper Out of the Tar Pit kinda feels like it is saying, “complexity is the enemy in software projects, and here is the best way to tame it”.
When I squint, I don’t see software development. I see a a field of engineering. A very complicated one. One that has been around for maybe 50 years. And I see someone making a claim about the best way to succeed in the field.
Looking through this lens, I feel a large amount of skepticism.